When should I pick Fly.io over Render?

Pick Fly.io if: Your users are spread across continents and the app runs in Docker.

When should I pick Render over Fly.io?

Pick Render if: You have a long-running server, a background worker and a database to deploy together.

Which is cheaper, Fly.io or Render?

At requests 5 million requests, data transfer out 100 GB, serverless function compute 100 GB-hours: Fly.io $15/mo (Pay As You Go), Render $39/mo (Hobby), at list prices.

Which do more makers use for hosting?

Among makers' products we track: Fly.io 66, Render 128.

How do Fly.io and Render compare in cost as you grow?

At 100k requests Fly.io costs less ($13 vs $25); and still does at 500M requests ($213 vs $1,524). Cheapest usable plan at each scale, at list prices.

Are people switching from Fly.io to Render?

Public GitHub pull requests since 2024-10-02: 21 from Fly.io to Render, 15 from Render to Fly.io.

Fly.io vs Render for hosting: which fits you

Which fits you

Choose Fly.io if

Your users are spread across continents and the app runs in Docker

Use it whenYour app runs in Docker and should serve users in several regions.

Trade-offMore operations work than a PaaS.

Choose Render if

You have a long-running server, a background worker and a database to deploy together

Use it whenYou want a managed server, cron jobs and Postgres with a flat per-instance price.

Trade-offFree instances sleep when idle and wake slowly; paid instances are billed whether busy or not.

At a glance

	Fly.io	Render
Used by	66 makers' products · 52 open-source projects	128 makers' products
Cost at default usagerequests 5 million requests, data transfer out 100 GB, serverless function compute 100 GB-hours	$15/mo Pay As You Go	$39/mo Hobby
Moved to it on GitHubpull requests since Oct 2024	15 from Render	21 from Fly.io
Downloads
Pricing	Usage-based. · paid from $1.94/mo (shared-cpu-1x)	Free tier for static sites and small services; paid per instance. · paid from $7/mo per instance
Free tier	No	Yes
Open source	No	No
Incidents, 90 daysfrom its status page	25+ (11 major)	16 (10 major)

Cost as you grow

At 100k requests Fly.io costs less ($13 vs $25); and still does at 500M requests ($213 vs $1,524). They're different kinds of tool — container platform and paaS — so the prices don't buy the same thing.

Render Fly.iox: requests per month (million requests), other usage scaled with it; held at 1 server (always-on app servers) · cheapest usable plan at each point, list prices · try your own numbers

The numbers, plan by plan

Requests per month	Fly.io	Render
0.1	$13 Pay As You Go	$25 Hobby
0.5	$13 Pay As You Go	$26 Hobby
1	$13 Pay As You Go	$27 Hobby
5	$15 Pay As You Go	$39 Hobby
10	$17 Pay As You Go	$54 Hobby
50	$33 Pay As You Go	$174 Hobby
100	$53 Pay As You Go	$324 Hobby
500	$213 Pay As You Go	$1,524 Hobby

From each vendor's pricing page: Fly.io, Render.

Who moves from one to the other

Public pull requests on GitHub since Oct 2024 whose title says "Fly.io to Render" or the reverse — real code changes, by developers in general rather than makers only.

Render →

Fly.io15 PRs

feat(deploy): migrate the API from Render to Fly.io (always-on machine)ninemindai/agentgem · 2026-07-05
Migrate deployment platform from Render to Fly.ioHoldoff-app/Holdoff · 2026-07-04
Migrate deployment from Render to Fly.iotimothylee58/Video-Steganograhy-using-LSB-Web-App · 2026-05-23
feat: migrate backend from Render to Fly.ioezefernandezyf/echolog · 2026-05-22
Migrate backend deployment from Render to Fly.iotejred213/Pune-Rent · 2026-05-17
Migrate backend hosting from Render to Fly.iotejred213/StockGenius · 2026-05-17
Migrate deployment from Render to Fly.ioradithyama/focusr-be · 2026-03-24
feat(#67): migrate all URLs from Render to Fly.ionicofains1/agentic-ads · 2026-02-27
Migrate backend from Render to Fly.ioriedel28/hotel-dashboard · 2026-02-16
🚀 Migrate from Render to Fly.iomanziosee/community-support-system · 2026-01-28

All matching pull requests on GitHub ↗

Fly.io →

Render21 PRs

docs: swap API hosting from Fly.io to Render in specvindon/rag-portfolio · 2026-09-07
Switch production deploy from Fly.io to Render.comMatheusCavalari/kanvas · 2026-08-12
Switch deploy target from Fly.io to Render (no credit card required)misbahtechhola/esignVaidation · 2026-08-08
feat: migrate sandbox to Fly.io, move backend to Render, standardize …jerryjuche/koder · 2026-07-31
Remove fly.toml, deploy target moved to Renderjoythejaks/palmyield · 2026-07-21
Deploy: add Fly.io config as an alternative to Renderrakeshnetdev/AIEC01_CERT_CHLG_GRANDMATE · 2026-07-20
Switch backend deploy target from Fly.io to RenderIqbalAzhari24/Sign-language-translator · 2026-07-13
feat: migrate production from Fly.io to Render + Cloudflare Pages + Neonsano-suguru/slicefx-shortlink · 2026-07-12
chore: migrate deployment target from Fly.io to Rendermasonnguyen1243/heno-shopify · 2026-07-07
Switch authoritative-server hosting from Fly.io to Rendershavei/NEON-SURVIVOR · 2026-06-24

All matching pull requests on GitHub ↗

What makers say

Makers on using it for hosting, from Product Hunt and Starter Story interviews, each linked to the source. Products with a page of their own and fuller notes first.

On Fly.io

Machines on Fly made it easy to build SSL-secured proxies and backends for keeping cross-internet Pig automations safe and encrypted.

Pig, the makerSep 2026 ↗

Shoutout to @flyDev - Deploying Mascotly globally was seamless thanks to Fly.io. It made it super easy to get our backend up and running close to users with minimal config. Fast, reliable, and developer-friendly - couldn’t ask for more! 🚀🌍

Mascotly, the makerSep 2026 ↗

Fly’s setup process was smooth and intuitive. Hosting APIs globally with minimal configuration was a huge time-saver.

Cure AI, the makerSep 2026 ↗

18 more on the Fly.io page →

On Render

Simple, predictable deploys for our Node/Express backend with none of the AWS-console overhead. We needed infra that stayed out of our way while we were heads-down on the product.

Compendium, the makerSep 2026 ↗

Render is stable, easy to use, and get started with - ideally for a startup. We considered Railway but we had some issues with it and didn't have the time to work through them.

Agen, the makerSep 2026 ↗

Render made hosting and deployment ridiculously simple. It’s honestly so smooth that we dont use Azure and AWS, even though we still have a bunch of credits sitting there.

Documentation.AI, the makerSep 2026 ↗

44 more on the Render page →

Loved and watch-outs

Themes that recur in makers' words and Hacker News comments, each linked to what it summarises.

Fly.io

Most loved

Apps deploy close to users around the world with minimal configuration. PH
The CLI makes deploys and scaling a single command. PH
Pricing is simple and predictable, with small containers costing very little. HN HN 2 PH

Watch-outs

Its unmanaged Postgres needs manual recovery when nodes fail or run out of memory. HN HN 2
Repeated major outages undermine confidence in its stability. HN

On Product Hunt: 5.0★, 27 reviews · mentioned most: easy deployment, developer friendly, CLI

Render

Most loved

Connecting a GitHub repo gives automatic deploys without building pipelines. PH
TLS, scaling, health checks and zero-downtime deploys work out of the box. PH
Teams find it far simpler than AWS or GCP, and one migration from GCP cut costs sharply. PH

Watch-outs

It costs much more than a cheap VPS, and per-container pricing pushes people to pack processes together. HN HN 2

On Product Hunt: 5.0★, 79 reviews · mentioned most: easy deployment, simple setup, scalable infrastructure · complaints: not the cheapest option

Who uses each

Fly.io66 makers' products

Cure AI Flight Follower

Pig

Render128 makers' products

Used by both — often one replacing the other, or each for a different part of the product

Fillout

What makers pair each with

With Fly.io

With Render

Neither quite right?

See the whole hosting decision →

VercelFrontend cloudNext.js apps — zero-config deploys and preview URLs.vs Fly.io →vs Render →

NetlifyFrontend cloudStatic sites and JAMstack apps on any framework.vs Render →

CloudflareEdge platformCheap global hosting with Workers, plus database (D1) and storage (R2) on the same platform.

RailwayPaaSServers, workers and databases deployed together, with almost no configuration.vs Fly.io →vs Render →

Amazon Web ServicesHyperscaler cloudThe widest catalog of building blocks — Lambda, containers, managed databases, queues — to assemble your own infrastructure.vs Fly.io →vs Render →

Hetzner CloudYour own serverA lot of CPU and RAM per euro, in European, US and Singapore regions.vs Fly.io →

CoolifyYour own serverA Heroku- or Vercel-style dashboard on your own server, with many one-click services.